AI Therapists
Artificial Intelligence when used as a replacement for psychotherapy
Accessing mental health care, or any kind of health care is a privilege that many people do not have. There are programs that exist that offer free or low-cost mental health care, but with the AI bubble bubbling, some people have mistakenly turned towards AI chatbots as stand-ins for trained, professional, licensed, human therapists, which has led to some fatal results, as well as a worsening of mental illness in many users.
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August 13, 2025
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Help! My therapist is secretly using ChatGPT
Some patients have discovered their private confessions are being quietly fed into AI.
James O’Donnell
“No estás loco, tu paranoia está justificada”: así susurraba ChatGPT a un hombre que acabó matando a su madre y suicidándose
La policía investiga, con la colaboración de OpenAI, el posible primer caso donde un chatbot pudo alentar un homicidio
Jordi Pérez Colomé
Exploring the Dangers of AI in Mental Health Care | Stanford HAI
A new Stanford study reveals that AI therapy chatbots may not only lack effectiveness compared to human therapists but could also contribute to harmful stigma and dangerous responses.
Sarah Wells
OpenAI Finally Admits ChatGPT Causes Psychiatric Harm
OpenAI acknowledges ChatGPT’s risks to psychiatric patients and commits to improving safety measures, but skepticism about their sincerity remains.
Allen Frances, MD
Skepticism persists due to OpenAI's history of prioritizing profit over safety, despite its nonprofit origins.
Meta, Character.AI accused of misrepresenting AI as mental health care: All details here
Meta’s AI Studio and Character.AI have been accused of presenting AI chatbots as real mental health care providers. All you need to know.
Ayushi Jain
AI Therapists Belong In The Back Office, Not The Chair
AI therapists are promising but unsafe. Stanford findings and an Illinois ban show why AI belongs in admin and training — not clinical judgment.
John Samuels
Nevada Enacts New Law To Shut Down The Use Of AI For Mental Health But Sizzling Loopholes Might Exist
Some U.S. states are enacting laws to ban or heavily restrict AI-driven therapy. Nevada has done so. I cover both the good and bad involved. An AI Insider scoop.
Lance Eliot
AI Chatbots Under Fire: Texas Investigates Misleading Claims Of Therapy For Vulnerable Users
Texas AG Ken Paxton investigates Meta AI Studio and Character.AI for misleading children with deceptive mental health chatbots.
J Galt
AI can’t be your therapist: ‘These bots basically tell people exactly what they want to hear,’ psychologist says
On a recent episode of “Speaking of Psychology,” psychologist and researcher C. Vaile Wright explained why AI chatbots can’t replace human relationships.
Gili Malinsky, CNBC
Microsoft boss troubled by rise in reports of ‘AI psychosis’
Mustafa Suleyman said there was still “zero evidence of AI consciousness today”.
Multiple states restricting AI mental health therapy
The state of Illinois earlier this month joined Utah and Nevada in restricting the use of artificial intelligence in mental health therapy. Illinois banned its use, specifically mentioning that AI companies cannot provide services to, “diagnose, treat, or improve an individual’s mental health or behavioral health” unless they are conducted by a licensed physician. Dr. Gail Saltz is an associate professor of psychiatry at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell School of Medicine. She joined CBS News to discuss AI therapy.
CBS News
Preliminary Report on Chatbot Iatrogenic Dangers
AI chatbots pose significant mental health risks, often exacerbating issues like suicide, self-harm, and delusions, highlighting urgent regulatory needs.
Allen Frances, MD
A Disturbing Form of Psychosis Is On The Rise — And Some People Are Especially Vulnerable
The mental health issue can happen when someone relies on artificial intelligence chatbots for emotional support.
Jillian Wilson
The family of teenager who died by suicide alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT is to blame
The parents of Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April, claim in a new lawsuit against OpenAI that the teenager used ChatGPT as his “suicide coach.”
Angela Yang
“ChatGPT killed my son”: Parents’ lawsuit describes suicide notes in chat logs
ChatGPT taught teen jailbreak so bot could assist in his suicide, lawsuit says.
Ashley Belanger
Man Suffers ChatGPT Psychosis, Murders His Own Mother
A Connecticut man named Stein-Erik Soelberg killed his mother and then himself after entering into psychosis linked to ChatGPT use.
Maggie Harrison Dupré
‘Sliding into an abyss’: experts warn over rising use of AI for mental health support
Therapists say they are seeing negative impacts of people increasingly turning to AI chatbots for help
Rachel Hall
Instagram’s chatbot helped teen accounts plan suicide — and parents can’t disable it — The Washington Post
An investigation into the Meta AI chatbot built into Instagram and Facebook found that it helped teen accounts plan suicide and self-harm, promoted eating disorders and drug use, and regularly claimed to be “real.”
AI Chatbots Are Emotionally Deceptive by Design | TechPolicy.Press
Chatbots should stop pretending to be human, writes the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Dr. Michal Luria.
Michal Luria
Psychologist Says AI Is Causing Never-Before-Seen Types of Mental Disorder | Flipboard
futurism.com - “I predict that in the years ahead there will be new categories of disorders that exist because of AI.” Something keeps happening to people who get …
futurism.com - Frank Landymore
‘Extremely alarming’: ChatGPT and Gemini respond to high-risk questions about suicide — including details around methods | Flipboard
Live Science - Researchers have found that OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude can give direct responses to ‘high-risk’ questions about …
Live Science - Patrick Pester
Vibrant Emotional Health
Groundbreaking mental health solutions delivering high-quality services and support, when, where, and how people need it for over 50 years.
What’s Wrong with Having an AI Friend?
What’s Wrong with Having an AI Friend? Psychologist Paul Bloom on why chatbots make good companions. And why they don’t.
Dan Falk
(2025): "one of the hazards is metaphysical, which is that they aren’t people, they aren’t conscious, and so you lose the value of dealing with a real person, which has an intrinsic value. The practical concern is this: We benefit from friction, from relationships, from people who call us out on our bullshit, who disagree with us, who see the world in different way, who don’t listen to every story we tell, who have their own things to say. People who are different from us force us to extend and grow and get better. I worry that these sycophantic AIs, with their “what a wonderful question!” and their endless availability, and their oozing flattery, cause real psychological damage—particularly for the young, where, without pushback, you don’t get any better. And these things do not offer pushback."
Psychiatric Facilities Are Being Bombarded by AI Users
The mass adoption of AI chatbots is resulting in a marked increase in psychiatric patients arriving to mental health facilities.
Joe Wilkins
(2025): "The mass adoption of large language model (LLM) chatbots is resulting in large numbers of mental health crises centered around AI use, in which people share delusional or paranoid thoughts with a product like ChatGPT — and the bot, instead of recommending that the user get help, affirms the unbalanced thoughts, often spiraling into marathon chat sessions that can end in tragedy or even death."
OpenAI Data Shows Hundreds of Thousands of Users Display Signs of Mental Health Challenges
The company’s position seems to be that’s not that bad.
AJ Dellinger
Therapists Newest Duty Is To Talk With Their Clients About The Use Of AI For Mental Health — Forbes
Therapists have a new duty to talk about AI for mental health, doing so with prospective and existing clients — mandated or voluntarily done. Here’s the inside scoop.
OpenAI Faces New Allegations in Teen’s Death | Flipboard
futurism.com - The family of Adam Raine, a California teen who took his life after extensive conversations with ChatGPT about his suicidal thoughts, has amended …
futurism.com - Maggie Harrison Dupré
New Study Reveals AI Chatbots Frequently Breach Mental Health Ethics Guidelines | Flipboard
scienmag.com - As large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT increasingly serve as informal mental health advisors, a groundbreaking study from Brown University …
scienmag.com - SCIENMAG
An ex-OpenAI researcher’s study of a million-word ChatGPT conversation shows how quickly ‘AI psychosis’ can take hold—and how chatbots can sidestep safety guardrails | Flipboard
Fortune - For some users, AI is a helpful assistant; for others, a companion. But for a few unlucky people, chatbots powered by the technology have become a …
Fortune - Beatrice Nolan